“The
name ‘Ensemble XXI Moscow’ reflects the wish that barriers
between musicians everywhere will be broken down in the 21st
Century.”

This
mission statement puzzles many. What barriers? Where, When and How
are there such barriers? Is this merely a magnanimous sounding but
meaningless explanation for the title ‘Ensemble XXI Moscow’
which could perhaps be just a racy, marketing name for an
orchestra founded a bit more than a decade before a new Millenium?

In
fact the name ‘Ensemble XXI Moscow’ reflects exactly the role,
vision and struggle of the orchestra from its very foundation to
its existence today.

When
Lygia O’Riordan and Pia Siirala studied in the 1980’s at the
world renowned Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory they discovered an
institution that was divided into two faculties – one for Soviet
Students and one for foreign students ( the same system is still
in place today). Apart from all the students' instrumental or
conducting lessons with the world famous Professors, all other
lessons were held separately whether in theory or in history. In
the words of Kipling “East is East and West is West and never
the two shall meet”. The system went so far as to even having
two separate orchestras -one for Soviet students and one for
foreigners.

The
irony was that the system broke down as all students who were not
from Moscow (whether from abroad or from other parts of the USSR)
were all housed under one roof –in the Conservatory’s
dormitory on Malaya Gruzinskaya Ulitsa. Any attempt to keep these
young Nationals away from each other could never have succeeded as
foreigners had Soviet roommates. This had been approved by the
Communist party so that foreigners could be “watched” by loyal
communist youths. Whilst there were some Soviet students who, in
the interest of their careers, avidly did so; for the most part
life long friendships developed between foreigners and Soviet
students. Thus the system broke down.

When
Pia and Lygia enthusiastically approached the foreign students’
Dean’s office about starting a multi-cultural orchestra in the
student dormitory to explore and perform the great repertoire for
string orchestra, the message that was delivered was in no
uncertain terms. Multi cultural yes but with no Soviet students
involved. Expulsion from the Conservatory would be the price of
disobedience and for a foolish Soviet student even worse.

So
a ”multi cultured’’ orchestra was founded in 1986 in the
USSR’s capital with an Irish conductor,
a Finnish leader and musicians from China, Colombia,
Czechoslovakia, Cuba, East Germany, Latin America, Poland, Vietnam
and Yugoslavia but with no Soviet students. All went smoothly
until the night before a performance in a Western Embassy when the
Colombian double bassist fell ill. This, with a programme that
included Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, was a disaster.
There were no other foreign double bassists. As Lygia tore her
hair out, there was a knock on her door. A Soviet double bassist
presented himself as the Colombian’s roommate. “I have heard
of your predicament but you know I can help because I know all of
the programme that you are going to play.” As Lygia described it
later: ’’At one moment I looked at him as the miraculous
answer to our plight but in the next realised that there was no
way I could get him, as a Soviet student, into a western Embassy
past gates manned by the KGB and that following the concert havoc
would
ensue for both him and all the foreigners in the orchestra. I lied
and told him that much as I was obliged to him for his generous
offer, I had already resolved the problem and found someone who
could play with us. He looked at me straight in the eye and told
me that he didn’t believe me and that I wasn’t taking him
because he was a Soviet’. A blow in the face couldn’t have
been a greater shock. In one moment I realised that I was
accepting this terrible apartheid between us. I sat down in
complete shock and told him that he was right. I had lied to him
but that even if I was willing to risk him playing with us what
would happen to him and finally, how on earth could I get him into
the Embassy past the KGB?He
answered that regarding the first two points he was willing to
risk if I was and regarding the final point, if the first two were
agreed to this could be resolved if we really wanted it to be.
Stunned, I said that if he was ready to risk so was I.’’
Ultimately Lygia found her brother’s Interrail pass that she had
accidentally kept after a recent train journey through Europe.
After glueing the double bassist’s photo on to it, an Irish law
student at Tuebingen University got into a Western Embassy to play
the double bass the next night!

After
this Lygia and Pia let it be known through the double bassist that
their orchestra’s doors were open to any Soviet student willing
to take the risk along with them. The demand was overwhelming and
many Soviet students auditioned. This resulted in long term
harassment from the Conservatory which only ended under its newly
appointed Rector who was approached by Lygia’s Professor, the
great Russian Conductor Gennadij Rozhdestvensky, to organize a
festival with Ensemble XXI Moscow under his baton and which was
preceded by the Rector’s public acknowledgment of the
orchestra’s ground breaking role on the International music
scene.

When
in 1988 they decided to ’go professional’ the name “Ensemble
XXI Moscow’’ was chosen to reflect barriers being broken down
in the future etween musicians everywhere. Over the years the
barriers have been so concrete. Soviet musicians needed
‘’foreign travel passports’’ to go abroad. Even when
western Embassies were ready to issue visas, the Soviet members
were harassed, bullied and threatened by their local district
passport offices when applying for these. The foreigners have been
in equally threatening situations. As recently as 1997 the
orchestra’s tour to Australia (including a concert in the Sydney
Opera House) was cancelled because the Foreign Student’s office
threatened the orchestra’s Vietnamese
members that if they continued playing with the orchestra, not
only would their scholarships be cancelled but that they would be
sent back to Vietnam in disgrace. Only in late 2002 was a ban
lifted at the Conservatory preventing the orchestra from playing
in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. Ensemble XXI Moscow’s
present plans to include North Korea in it’s “Pacific Rim
Music Festival’’ as well as to tour to Cuba bear witness to
its dedication to breaking down ‘’barriers between musicians
everywhere in the 21st Century.’’

To
this day the Vietnamese members of the orchestra are always
subjected to lengthy delays in being granted visas as opposed to
any of the other nationalities in the orchestra.

Despite
the orchestra’s international commitments in the world’s great
concert halls and cultural centres, Ensemble XXI Moscow is
passionate about its own ‘’Pacific Rim Music Festival” with
its four goals to

Bring
music to remote areas where performances with professional
musicians do not otherwise take place.

Involve
local amateur groups in joint performances (such as last
year’s performance of the complete Messiah on Australia’s
Sapphire Coast with local choirs joined by the orchestra and
soloists from the Australian and Boston opera companies)

School
concerts where children not only listen to the orchestra but
even have the opportunity of conducting it.

Involving
the indigenous peoples in each country in joint performances
promoting goodwill amongst different races.

Ensemble
XXI Moscow was founded so that musicians could play chamber music
together. Circumstances forced it to make a stand against several
forms of tyranny. The orchestra’s role is to play performances
of chamber music upon which it must be judged first and foremost.
Nevertheless, as music is a universal language, it has a duty and
indeed is bound
to take up the challenges created by forces that do not share this
vision and to stand side by side with those people that do.
Whether it is playing in politically sensitive areas or travelling
to remote regions of the world or to the economically suffering
regions of Russia which enjoyed a rich cultural life in Soviet
times or indeed to playing free for pensioners in Moscow and St.
Petersburg, the orchestra strives to carry out the responsibility
of holding the name: Ensemble XXI Moscow.